Why, though?

I joined facebook in 2004 and joined twitter in 2007 (I think, my current account is from 2013 or something). I joined instagram in 2016, I believe. I have used them to keep up with friends, market various businesses, harass politicians, get a confederacy memorial torn down and generally Build A Personal Brand. Perhaps I am a slow learner, but after 17 years I no longer derive utility nor pleasure from either using social media, either as a producer of content or a consumer of content.

As the revenue loop has gotten tighter and more efficient across all platforms I cannot escape the feeling that the services are creating a sort of anti-culture, a mass of gestures, responses and symbols that short-circuit the normal activities that build culture–accompaniment and organizing is replaced with instagram stories featuring the blazon WHAT’S HAPPENING IN NEW YORK/HAITI/AFGHANISTAN AND HOW YOU CAN HELP. Meaningful communication is reduced to pro forma boasts about life events and pro forma replies to them. Discourse has devolved to a form of remote disagreement where reactionaries have weaponized eggshell-skinned hysteria and liberals cynically co-opt the language of the oppressed to avoid engaging in structural or systemic critiques that might displace their position within the power structure.

So I’m done with it. Turns out it was chewing up a bunch of brain space and I largely haven’t missed any good party invites. Or if I have I didn’t know about it, which is the same difference really.

One of the few good uses of social media, though, was the ability to platform creative projects and ideas, though the monetization algorithms make that more of an uphill climb every month. Hence this blog.

You can expect, via signing up for my tinyletter email list or regularly viewing this website, the following:

  • Photos of Merlin
  • Various handicrafts, from quilts to electronics
  • Discussions of whatever media I am currently consuming, provided I have any sort of insight about it.
  • A detailing of my progress in Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation
  • Poorly articulated ideas about philosophy and capitalism.
  • Fiction of variable, hopefully improving, quality
  • Tabletop RPG content (thrilling stuff, I know)
  • Ideas about political engagement
  • Probably some anecdotes, hopefully enlightening or enjoyable in nature.

You won’t find:

  • Ads
  • Popups (I have ADHD and hate them)
  • Any sort of eyeball grabbing exhortations to comment or otherwise engage with my content
  • The ability to comment on or otherwise engage with my content (I am moving towards epistolary communication, plus I plan to never actually visit my own website)
  • Monetization generally, though I might try to sell you a book at some point or another.

Thank you for reading all of this, here’s a photo of Merlin eating a pork rind on a bicycle.